Stress and You
Stress is something that everyone experiences. It is something that, when asked the question: “how do you deal with stress?”, everyone has their own answer.
Today, let’s chat through what stress is, how we can spot its’ signs within ourselves and others, how we can mitigate it, and finally, how we might best live alongside it over the long term.
My caveat, as ever with writing for MindMapper on mental health and the complex web of sensitive topics therein is that I write from my experience.
This will help some people and sound less affirming to others. If you are in distress or crisis, please seek professional support. I’ll leave a list of great resources and places to call at the end of the blog.
Defining Stress
Stress is your natural response to ‘stressors’. Stressors are things out there in the world that you perceive which have a tense effect on your brain. You perceive these things to be of threat to you and it is these stressors that induce a sense of fear. Perhaps enough to invoke a deeper ‘fight-or-flight-response.
The adrenaline is pumping and other related hormones like cortisol are in full flow, your stress response is your body’s way of protecting you. It’s automatic and it is there to support you and ultimately to help you survive (cheers, cavemen humankind).
Stress helps us to navigate everyday tasks and helps us rise to the greatest of our achievements. That’s what makes it such a powerful tool and such a persistent fiend. We each carry it with us forever; and it can go from silent to very loud in an instant (depending on those stressors of course).
Symptoms of stress vary from headaches and muscle tension to difficulty concentrating and a sense of overwhelm that can’t quite go away. It’s not any single behaviour or combination of things — it manifests differently for each of us.
Watching Out For Stress
So, how can we watch out for stress in ourselves and in others? Basically, stressors are everywhere. It’s all about perception and us humans perceive a LOT of stuff.
We want to get really good at noticing when things (internal or external) cause a shift in our thoughts and behaviours such as our self-talk or our general mood. If we can identify the things which trigger our stress response, we can intervene and manage or cope from there.
So, how do we identify stressors? These questions serve me well:
- What’s causing this stress on the surface?
- What’s the underlying cause beneath that surface reason?
- Am I really stressed about this, or is it something else that’s bothering me?
By asking ourselves these questions, we can identify whether we are really bothered by the train being late or if we are actually stressed because we are losing concentration from sleeping 5 hours per night.
Ask yourself what your underlying causes of stress are as well as what your surface stressors are and you are on your way to knowing yourself and managing your stress more effectively.
Becoming Chronic
If stress responses are persistent over time they may become chronic. This means that the stress is much deeper than simply ‘feeling stressed’. There is an element of consistency and depth to chronic stress and the regularity of different combinations of symptoms that differentiates it from regular stress.
Chronic stress is something you are more likely to need direct support for and if not addressed it can lead to knock-on health challenges such as anxiety, depression and weaker immune system responses. Check out this blog on chronic stress from VeryWellMind to find out more.
It’s Not All Bad
I hope that I haven’t painted a bleak picture for you where we are all triggered and stressed constantly. There’s truth but also pessimism in that statement.
The fact is that stress can be a true driving force for change, growth and achievement. Have you heard of eustress?
Let’s see eustress as the opposite of Distress. Eustress fires you up, distress brings you down. Eustress provides positive energy and increased focus, distress brings negative energy and decreased focus. You get the picture.
So, we simultaneously want to use eustress but minimise distress.
We can do this through:
- Maximising how much and how well we know ourselves through self-awareness
- Increasing our emotional intelligence (EQ) so that we can respond to our stressors in ways that are to our benefit.
In Sum
As you resume your day, I’d like you to ask yourself the following questions. Then, if you feel like you want or need to, put into regular practice that which will support yourself around your stress.
- What stressors do I respond to the most? i.e. What and Who makes me the most stressed I can be during a regular week?
- What elements, if any, of my regular stress responses may be more chronic and worthy of further introspection and investigation?
- What parts of my week are more eustress than distress and are actually positive for my wellbeing? Do I want or need more of those moments?
As always, take care out there :)
Ryan
List of Support Resources: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/mental-health-and-stigma/help-and-support
Ryan McGee is a Contributing Writer for MindMapper UK — seeking to redefine mental health for young people, reduce stigma and provide support.
MindMapper UK is bringing you, The Festival You Didn’t Know You Needed on October 8th: https://www.medayfestival.com/
He writes regularly on mental health and his start-up journey on www.rymcgee.com
